Growing your career and business when you work from home: Issue 20

Issue 20 of The Homeworker magazine: GROW

I am really proud of this issue of The Homeworker magazine. As a milestone issue, it takes the theme: Grow. As ever, we’ve explored this theme in several directions. We look at growing in mind, body, and business. All of these areas are really fundamental to growing your career when you work from home.

As a homeworker, you may need to adapt and introduce practices that will help you grow your business, or your career. We take a look at topics such as growth mindset, building an effective network, taking up space, and even expanding your time.

Explore some of what we have inside!

Embracing a growth mindset

When you tap into a growth mindset, you are open to learning, to opportunities, and tend to start becoming more successful. As coach and podcast host, Dr Gary Cortez says in our article, a growth mindset is one  “of curiosity and  exploration”.

We talk to psychologists and workplace trainers to discover what having a growth mindset really means, how you can develop it, and some of the challenges and advantages if you work from home. We also talk about developing a growth mindset if you are neurodivergent.

For real inspiration, we speak with three business owners who have embraced a growth mindset and reaped the rewards. From gaining more self-confidence and self-belief, to generating millions in revenue.

Expanding your time

Ever wish time could stand still and you could get more done? Ever find no matter the time available, a task takes as long as the time you have. Perhaps, you’ve experienced moments of being in the zone and completing much more work than you thought? We explore two different time theories in About Time to help you achieve more in less time.

Parkinson’s Law is one theory we look at, as well as how to overcome it. We find out how to create the conditions to get into a flow state and some practical tips for managing your tasks so you procrastinate less.

To beat procrastination and get into a flow state, one common factor is clarity over your goals and what you are working on. To enter a flow state, another factor that needs to be present is your focus on one task – no multi-tasking. You can read more in the article.

Stretching your body

Sitting hunched over a desk can cause a variety of complaints, especially for homeworkers. Without an adequate ergonomic setup, ensuring we move and stretch our bodies is crucial to prevent back, neck and shoulder pain.

In issue 20, Tamsin White of Empower Fit takes us through a series of postures to help us counter the effects of hours at a desk.

When it comes to stretching your body, it is also important to consider the physical space we use. Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Stephanie Fitzgerald explains why we need to claim our physical space, and the messages this sends to our brain to enhance our performance.

The sheer act of claiming space, whether by standing tall, or raising our heads, can help us feel more confident, and ultimately help us become more successful and grow our business.

Boost your career

When you work from home and don’t always get to see people in real life as regularly, building your network can be even more important. Systemic team coach, James Edmondson, credits much of his career success down to building effective networks. He takes us through a step by step process to chart your network growth as well as tips to help you reach out and form lasting connections.

Another way to grow professionally is through self-development. How do you maintain your skills and continue to up-skill in order to grow your career when you work from home? We look at different ways to to keep up with your professional development outside of an office structure.

We also explore several different growth options for your business. Suzy and Paul Sanders of Alchemy VA share their story of creating a franchise. This model has helped them expand their brand, grow recurring revenue, and help others grow their own small businesses.

In the new Branding Bites column by Michelle Jones of Squark Design, she shares her tips to help your brand stand out and make an impact. We also look at other avenues for business growth, as well as the importance of market research from the founder of Product Jungle, Katie Tucker.

Expand your horizons

Working from home or remotely is nowadays almost synonymous with working from anywhere. In our feature on expanding your horizons, we speak with three experts in remote and dispersed working. Each has their own reasons for doing what they do, and each share valuable insights into how to work from anywhere successfully.

Iwo Szapar, Rowena Hennigan and Nadia Harris all talk about their favourite places to work in the world, and offer suggestions for people looking to adopt a remote-first lifestyle or business model.

A few things they advise for those looking to go fully remote:

• Do a SWOT analysis. Have data to inform your decisions about what will work for your organisation. Don’t make assumptions.
• As a leader make sure you road test – literally. Take a trip and see how it could work for you and the rest of your team.
• Establish a culture of trust is critical so that everyone feels comfortable working out fo the office and that work will get done.
• Invest in the right technology to facilitate remote working and enable asynchronous communication.

Growing your career when you work from home

The Grow issue is a really packed edition with a lot of food for thought, practical tips, and expert advice that will give you tools to grow. From professional development, business growth, and more psychological and mindset techniques, this is an issue for expansion.